Born in Utrecht in 1912, Brouwers grew up in The Hague and held various jobs including hairdresser, travel guide, and vacuum cleaner salesman. He loved operetta and tried without success for a career as a singer, having only one minor hit. In 1972 he was discovered when he auditioned as an extra for the Wim T. Schippers television showDe Fred Hachéshow, and quickly rose to prominence. Schippers created the character Sjef van Oekel for Brouwers, who returned in two later Schippers shows, Barend is weer bezig and Van Oekel's Discohoek. The van Oekel character was ancillary in De Fred Hachéshow and Barend is weer bezig, both of which had Barend Servet as the lead, but central in Van Oekel's Discohoek, where he played the host of a music show on television that parodied popular music programs of the era. In Het is weer zo laat! Brouwers, who was 67 at the time, plays Waldo van Dungen, a bumbling and chaotic nightclub owner. Formerly a waiter at the club, van Dungen had married a rich admirer, Gé Braadslee, who buys it for him; he renames it Waldolala. As van Oekel and van Dungen, Brouwers was a striking character with a large television presence, and equipped with large glasses, a tuxedo, and a "Hitler mustache". His sense of humor corresponded with Schippers'; both were extraordinarily fond of and gifted in creating puns and using unorthodox and humorous syntax and diction. Brouwers recorded many Schippers-penned and other songs, most of which comic and dramatic. With Manke Nelis he recorded "Vis wordt duur betaald", but his best known song is probably "Vette jus", a dish still associated with him in a song that is little more than a list of Dutch dishes. The song was first performed on the 1974 Christmas special for Barend is weer bezig; it was written by Schippers, Gied Jaspars, and Clous van Mechelen. Whether van Oekel was just used or also abused by Schippers and others was the topic of a 2004theater production. According to Hein Janssen, writing in de Volkskrant, it is certainly true that Brouwers jumped at the opportunity to become a celebrity, but the extent to which Schippers and the other writers and directors pushed Brouwers is questionable.
